From March 14 to 21, 2021, in the 18th Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Mock Arbitration Tribunal, the Peking University team emerged from a total of 147 teams from 37 countries and regions around the world, won the Eric Bergsten Award for the Team That Prevails in Oral Arguments - Sixteenth Finals and the Fali Nariman Award for the Best Respondent Memorandum - Honorable Mention, the top 10% in the world, setting the best result achieved by Chinese institutions of higher learning in this year's competition. In the round robin tournament, the Peking University representative team ranked 8th in the world in terms of points, the best result of any Chinese university in the competition in recent years. This is the honor of Peking University after five years of being shortlisted in the Willem C. Vis (East) Simulated International Commercial Arbitration Tribunal Competition in 2015 and 2016.

The Willem C. Vis Competition of International Commercial Arbitration Model Arbitration Tribunal is jointly sponsored by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the University of Vienna. It has a history of 27 years each year in Vienna, Austria. Using English as the language of the competition, Vis Moot aims to promote the study and study of international commercial arbitration and international uniform substantive law in the field of civil and commercial affairs, attracting more than 300 universities from all over the world every year. Starting in 2003, the tournament committee held the Willem C. Vis (East) Moot ("Vis East Moot") in Hong Kong, using the same cases and rules as the Vienna Division, both of which are parallel to each other. Due to the COVID-19, the 18th Vis East Moot was held via online video, but the scale of the competition remained unaffected, and 147 teams from famous international law schools such as Harvard University, London School of Political Science and Economics, University of Freiburg, University of Heidelberg, and the School of Law of the Mainland of China, including Peking University, Renmin University of China, China University of Political Science & Law, Tsinghua University, University of International Business & Economics, East China University of Political Science and Law, and South China University of Technology, were still attracted to the competition.

For the current Vis Moot team of Peking University, Associate Professor Gao Wei, Associate Professor of Law School serves as the advisor; Sun Haobang, a Law Master Grade 2019 and Ou Yangjie, a Law Master Grade 2018 serve as the student coaches; Jiang Hewen, a Law Master Grade 2020 and Wang Fengquan, an undergraduate Grade 2018 serve as the team leader; the remaining members are: Chen Zhuowei, a Law Master Grade 2020, Sun Deni, an undergraduate Grade 2017, Li Zhuoqian, an undergraduate Grade 2018, Qiu Shangqing, an undergraduate Grade 2018, Jiang Wenjun, an undergraduate Grade 2018, Chen Nuo, an undergraduate Grade 2019, Zhang Ning, and Jin Rong, an undergraduate Grade 2019. 

The picture shows Peking University's team members. From the left, they are Jiang Wenjun, Chen Nuo, Jiang Hewen, Sun Dini, Chen Zhuowei, Jin Rong, Zhang Ning, Li Zhuoqian, Wang Fengquan and Qiu Shangqing.

In this Vis East Moot competition, Jiang Hewen, Chen Zhuowei, Sun Deni and Wang Fengquan acted as the debaters. They competed with Instituto Tecnol ógico Autónomo de México, Campbell University School of Law, University of Frankfurt am Main, and Universitas Katolik Parahyangan in Indonesia, winning 32 top global honors.

In the competition, the Peking University debaters demonstrated their solid legal knowledge, logical thinking and excellent English debating skills, and won high praise from international renowned arbitration experts, including Professor Louis Flannery QC, a British barrister. In terms of the individual debaters award, a total of 456 people from 147 law schools around the world participated in the debate. Wang Fengquan, a 2018 undergraduate from Peking University Law School, was awarded the Best Oralists - Winner (Neil Kaplan Award for the Best Oralists - Winner , ranked joint first), and Chen Zhuowei, a 2020 LLM and Jiang Hewen, a 2020 LLM, were awarded the Neil Kaplan Award for the Best Oralists - Honorable Mention (the top 10%), ranking seventh and 13th in the world respectively. In terms of the number and quality of individual debaters' awards, the Peking University team not only set a new record in the history of the event, but also set a record for the Chinese mainland team in the Vis East Moot competition in the past seven years. 

The picture shows that Mr. Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS (Jia Bolun), Expert Member of the Committee of International Commercial Experts of the Supreme People's Court and former Judge of the Supreme People's Court at the Vis East Moot Award Ceremony.

The Peking University team not only benefited from its first-class teaching and scientific research, but also from its tradition of emphasizing practical teaching, participating in international simulated arbitration competitions, and the training of foreign-related talents. Under the guidance of Associate Professor Gao Wei and the scientific training of Sun Haobang and other student coaches, all the members of Vis Moot team of Peking University have been working hard to overcome the technical difficulties and jet lag caused by online competitions. During the 6-month preparatory period, the author has made a thorough study on the complex and cutting-edge international commercial arbitration and international trade law issues, such as "third party joinder", "interpretation of online hearing and arbitration agreement", "applicability of hybrid contract and CISG" and "seller's intellectual property guarantee obligation under CISG", "seller's intellectual property guarantee obligation under CISG", etc. 

Before the Vis East Moot competition, the Peking University team also took part in the 18th International Commercial Arbitration Moot Debate Competition (won the National Best Paper Award with the highest points), the 5th AIAC KL Pre-Moot Competition and the 13th Prague Pre-Moot Competition. About 20 friendly warm-up matches were held with 13 law schools including Minster University, Hamburg School of Law, Humboldt University, Hannover University, Australia Bond University, National University of Singapore, Auckland University of New Zealand, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Through the high standard of training intensity and international practice level, the players understood the competition questions and became familiar with the presentation, and laid the foundation for their excellent performance in the competition.

Congratulations again on the Peking University team's success in the Vis Moot International Competition, and I wish the Peking University Vis Moot team great success in the future!

Translated by Zhang Yating

Edited by Zhang Yating